Adding Flash Most of the Time
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FLASH IS USED TO MAKE THIS IMAGE, BUT IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE FLASH
Hey folks,
As both July 1st and July 4th holidays are rapidly approaching, or are here or past when you read this, I am thinking about bright sudden lights because both days are coincident with fireworks displays unless some woke tools have gotten them banned.
Since most people are enthralled by sudden and short bursts of light, it makes me wonder (more) why more photographers do not use flash more often.
I’ve already heard multiple rationales, but they net out to a few reasons.
I don’t know how
I don’t like flash
I don’t know how and so I don’t like flash
Whatever you choose is right for you, but I am going to make a proposal for more flash because it is the only light that you have full control over.
When photographing in any situation, take a few seconds to ask yourself if applying light control will make a difference in the image. While it improve the overall colour rendition? (probably yes) Will it allow you to direct viewer attention? (yes) Will it allow you to create more dimensionality in an image? (yes).
Obviously by now, you understand that I see very few scenarios where the addition of flash will not benefit in some way, so let’s consider what controlling the light allows you to do.
Exercise control over direction
Exercise control over colour
Exercise control over quality
If these sound familiar, it is because these are the three deliverables that light brings. A photograph REQUIRES light, so by bringing your own light, you bring more control of the original image and that can, when you apply your brain to it, deliver better images in camera, which means better images and more distinctive images when you are finished with your processing steps.
The header image was made as part of my last article’s topic of using a fisheye lens, but when you look at the image, it is not apparent without some diligence and time investment on the viewer’s part, to see that there is flash being used. However, I guarantee you that it is there.
The day was actually raining reasonably heavy, although under the canopy, the rain was not quite as hard. However, it made the scene flat, a bit hazy, and the wonderful richness of the colours were muted. Sure I could spend a fair bit of time in Lightroom Classic or Capture One Pro and post shot edit the image to change the colour and increase sharpness and play with detail and innumerable other time engagements or I could use flash in the shot and have time left over to enjoy a coffee while I did my selects, my basic processing and my exports. I had to spend less than one minute per image on the ones selected in post processing, including the export time because I used flash at the time of image capture.
Because it was raining, I had minimum kit with me. A camera, an 8-15mm fisheye and an on camera flash. I didn’t even have a diffuser for the flash. I used whatever the ambient light exposure was and had the flash on camera in TTL mode. No flash exposure compensation, no ambient exposure compensation, just focus (hahahah - no focus as the fisheye at f/4 has depth of field from about two feet to infinity) recompose to suit and squeeze the shutter.
It all just worked. Simple, finished, nearly done. In post, I followed my typical process of highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, sharpening using my 80/mask refine/120 method, and then export to JPEG at full quality, 1920 pixels on the long side. That’s it.
Earlier this week we had a camera club meeting and excellent images were displayed by members as always happens. As I looked at the very high quality work, I asked myself (and kept my yap shut) if and how a flash would have enhanced the already very good work, and perhaps reduced the amount of processing that the member felt was necessary. Not every image would have benefitted, but most would not have been hurt in any way, and many made even stronger but simply using on camera flash blended automatically with the ambient exposure.
I challenge each reader to do this. When you next go to make photos, put your hotshoe flash on the camera in TTL mode and make some exposures with and without the flash turned on. I expect (ok I know) that you will discover some scenarios where the presence of the flash makes you like the image more and have the image more differentiated from every other image out there of the same type of subject.
Thanks as always for reading. If you shop at B&H Photo Video, please do so through the link on our home page. It costs you nothing, and pays me a small commission. Until next time, peace/
